2014 Archives

Dates announced for carfree riding around Crater Lake

Buffered Bike Lane with a bike symbol and arrow pointing forward

Cycle Oregon Day 3 - Crater Lake!-21.JPG

There’s nothing quite like it… especially without any cars to deal with.
(Photo J. Maus/BikePortland)

If you missed a chance to ride McKenzie Pass without being disturbed by noisy and smelly cars (it was just re-opened to all traffic over the weekend), then I’ve got some great news: Officials from Crater Lake National Park and Travel Oregon just announced this year’s dates for their own version of carfree cycling spectacularness.

This year there will be three different dates when certain sections of Rim Drive will be open only to non-motorized traffic: June 21-22 (this weekend!), Saturday September 20th and Saturday, September 27th.

One of the organizers for local group Better Block PDX has made a nice video of how Portlanders responded to two temporary public spaces the group created over the weekend at one of Portland’s most interesting intersections.

After securing city permits and a green light from nearby business owners, the Better Block PDX team marked off an underused turn lane at Southeast 26th and Clinton and turned it into a public plaza (or technically, Portland architect Don Arambula observed, a “forecourt”) for two days.

Margi Bradway speaking at a panel discussion
at the Oregon Active Transportation Summit in 2012.
(Photos J. Maus/BikePortland)

The Portland Bureau of Transportation has hired Margi Bradway to be their new Active Transportation Division Manager. Bradway, 40, comes to PBOT from the Oregon Department of Transportation where she managed the agency’s Sustainability Program and more recently became their lead staffer on active transportation policy. Bradway was also a close adviser to ODOT Director Matt Garrett.

Here’s more about Bradway from ODOT’s website:

Margi is a long time Portland resident with a background in environmental science. Before law school Margi worked for the National Wildlife Federation in Washington, D.C. on national wetlands policy. During law school at Lewis and Clark College, Margi worked for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Oregon Department of Justice in the Natural Resources Division. Margi was also an environmental attorney at Stoel Rives.

PPB Police Chief Mike Reese on bike patrol-9

Portland Police Bureau Chief Mike Reese on SW 2nd Ave and Ankeny this morning.
(Photos J. Maus/BikePortland)

Portland Police Bureau Chief Mike Reese is on bike patrol today.

I follow @chiefreese on Twitter and this morning he mentioned he was out with bike officers today. Then, after a few readers texted me his whereabouts (thanks Ryan and Dee!), I rolled out to track him down. I ended up meeting him and Officer Todd Engstrom near the corner of SW 2nd and Burnside.

Mayor Adams at Safe Routes to School ride-22

State Sen. Michael Dembrow, right, at a Safe Routes
to School ride with state Rep. Lew Frederick in 2010.
(Photo J.Maus/BikePortland)

Saying that a window of opportunity is opening for the Oregon Department of Transportation to make Portland’s 82nd Avenue a better place, State Sen. Michael Dembrow is urging people to attend two events this summer.

“I’ve been working on various issues related to 82nd since I was first elected, and now a path to addressing these issues in a more comprehensive way is opening up.,” Dembrow wrote in an email this week. “Neighborhood leaders have convened a group to bring together businesses and community leaders, neighbors and neighborhood associations to create a unified voice for change along 82nd Ave. The 82nd Ave. Improvement Coalition has been meeting regularly since the beginning of this year, and I’ve been able to attend several of their meetings. Things are now really picking up steam.”

The “Foster freeway” will look a lot different once this $5.25 million plan is implemented.
(Photo J. Maus/BikePortland)

A free app that uses the open-source software behind TriMet’s much-heralded Trip Planner has just brought multimodal trip planning to Portland iPhones.

Nimbler, a California-based startup that already has similar apps in place for San Francisco and Washington DC, combines public transit schedules, bike routes and (in other cities) bike share station info to make it easy to combine bike and transit trips.

Google Street View image of the approximate incident location. The bus stop is visible beneath the tree at right.

TriMet is investigating an incident in which a man claims that a TriMet operator blew him off after a bus pulled in front of him while he was riding his bike, prompting a collision.

The encounter took place June 6 at 4:30 pm, leaving the man, Erik Holm, with what he described as “minor pain in my left shoulder, injury sustained when I used my left arm to brace against impact with the bus at oblique angle.”

Brand new buffered bike lane on SW Boones Ferry Road installed by Washington County.
(Photo: Robin Straughan)

Reader Robin Straughan sent in the news that Washington County has added buffered bike lanes and a sidewalk to a one-mile stretch of SW Boones Ferry Road between Tualatin and Wilsonville (map).

The BTA is up for a $50,000 grant and they need more votes to make it happen. The competition is among 11 other non-profits who are also lining up for the grant from Advantis Credit Union. So far, the BTA isn’t doing so hot. You can vote online every 24 hours through June 30th.

As for what they’d do with the grant, here’s an infographic they tweeted last week…

Do you know what your vote is going to? Take a look, your vote counts! Vote every 24 hours @ http://t.co/lF8hXurmcJ pic.twitter.com/59htDHg1lz

— BTA (@BTAOregon) June 13, 2014

East Portland reporter’s notebook: Pump track, a shop on the ‘Outer Rim’, Halsey sidewalk, & more

Michael and I had a great time riding and reporting all over east Portland last week. While we’ve posted over 150 images in our photo gallery and nine front page stories, our notebooks still have plenty of items worth sharing with you…

A visit to The Outer Rim, Portland’s easternmost bike shop

Brandon Fite, manager of the The Outer Rim.
(Photos J. Maus/BikePortland)

Unlike in neighborhoods that ring Portland’s central city, where it sometimes feels like there’s a bike shop around every corner, there are very few bike shops east of I-205. In fact, there are only two.

Good morning! Our roundup of the best bike links on the web is sponsored by Western Bike Works, longtime BikePortland sponsor and one of the city’s best bike shops.

Here are the stories from around the world that caught our eyes this week:

Australian epic: One hundred years ago last week, a 21-year-old photographer rolled into the post office in Adelaide after a 3,000-mile bike trip across the largely roadless continent. A few hundred photos survive.

Bike share vs. bike shops: Bike shop owners have some pretty interesting theories about a recent article (linked in last week’s Roundup) suggesting that bike sharing has hurt bike shop business in Manhattan.

Dates announced for carfree riding around Crater Lake

‘Popcorn plaza’ video shows off benefits of reusing underused street space

PBOT hires Margi Bradway as new Active Transpo Division Manager

PPB Chief Reese joins a shift with downtown bike patrol

Legislator says effort to improve 82nd Avenue is ‘really picking up steam’

City Council unanimously supports major re-design, bike lanes on Foster Road

Bike-to-transit mobile trip planner launches in Portland

After alleged bike-bus collision, TriMet driver tells man ‘You’re fine’ and drives off

New buffered bike lanes for Boones Ferry Road

BTA needs your vote to win $50,000 grant

East Portland reporter’s notebook: Pump track, a shop on the ‘Outer Rim’, Halsey sidewalk, & more

A visit to The Outer Rim, Portland’s easternmost bike shop

The Monday Roundup: Australian epic, bike share vs. bike shops & more

Latest Headlines

‘Better Sheridan’ project brings safer street to South Waterfront

Your guide to finding the ‘Wildwood’ crows by bike

My journey to that ‘Hard Rock glow’

Off-Road Cycling Master Plan: A decade later, what has changed?

From the Archives

The 10 busiest bicycling spots in Portland